1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a method for conducting representative sampling. More specifically, the invention relates to a convenient, versatile, simple, and inexpensive computer-based means of conducting representative sampling.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The ability to detect and reliably measure change is prerequisite to any sustained effort to bring about improvement. It is also prerequisite to meaningful experimentation. Presently available measurement tools for detecting change are problematic in most contexts, however, because most people, objects and processes can be difficult to quantify in many respects. One problem with prior art methods of quantification is measurement and sample bias. A very common measurement technique used for tracking worker productivity, for example, is the keeping of a time log. U.S. Pat. No. 5,991,742 (Tran, Nov. 23, 1999) discloses a state-of-the art embodiment of this method. The state-of-the-art device for application of this method is not only computer-based, but the host computer is a personal digital assistant (PDA). PDAs are compact, lightweight, and comparatively inexpensive, so that they may be carried in a pocket or even worn on the body. Even with such state-of-the-art methods and equipment, however, this time logging technique is prone to large error because it relies on the user to remember to record the various begin and end times of each activity. Users often forget. This logging method is also vulnerable to wishful thinking and inability to guess durations accurately. Similar problems plague myriad fields. Evaluation of proposed treatments for autism-related neurological disorders, for example, can suffer from similar observer bias and faulty memory.
Representative sampling can alleviate these difficulties. The essence of representative sampling is the use of some repeatable scale of measurement to make many observations at times or in a manner that is designed to avoid sample bias. Representative sampling has already been applied with great success in fields where measurement is easy, such as manufacturing. Application of this technique in non-manufacturing fields often requires great investment in infrastructure, however, as is apparent in social science experimentation, opinion polling and television viewership rating, to give just a few examples. Accordingly, in the prior art, representative sampling could not readily be applied to most fields.
There is therefore a need for a tool for representative sampling that can readily be applied to many fields. There is also a need for such a tool that is computer-based, and a further need for such a method and device that is portable, for use wherever the user happens to be. There is a still further need for such a tool that is convenient, versatile, simple and inexpensive to apply or use. There is an additional need for a method of representative sampling that improves upon the prior art.